Pages

25 February 2012

A week before the recently concluded Copenhagen Fashion Festival, I let out a sigh on Twitter:

When it comes to fashion, I am torn. I love it. I hate it. I love the creative and playful part, where new ideas are born, and the party is on. I cannot stand the part of Danish fashion that excludes people, the humorless, fear-ridden circus, run by a self appointed "fashion royalty", calling all the shots. It suffocates me. Every season it is the same show, in the same venues for the same people. Fashion is supposed to be about change. Where is the revolution?

Within minutes of my tweet, her coolness Tambourine Sam returned with a: "we could do our own thing?". Yes! Something. Anything. What could be done on short notice with what we had lying around? This is what we came up with:

I doubt it anyone noticed, but it was never about that, throwing in a little humor was just liberating. Fashion should be fun.

23 February 2012

This is my first day out of my deathbed, and I have been taking it nice and easy. The one thing I had to do today, I forgot, and all the fantastic non-events of the day was just like a welcome back present from life. First off, I can't believe this:

What? In my own backyard...

...along with this:

And it turns out that the noise down the street, that I have willfully ignored all day, was the clearing out of a huge shared attic space. The gathering, growing, grasping crowd was my first clue when I finally hit the street level, and I was told I missed a ton of wooden beer crates. Ah. But I still got a really cool mirror, some clothes and the priceless thrill of the hunt.

Zebra News.

After dragging my loot home, I went to see if the city was still in its place. The centre is under construction everywhere, on the pedestrian street they are still busy doing the pavement, and behind it they are building a playground out of what looks like pistachio and chocolate:

Right before I took this picture, I was reminding myself of the one thing I had to do today:

And right after I took it, I forgot it again.

When I turned the corner on my own street, all that was left of the big attic party was this:

21 February 2012

For some reason I keep coming back to the abandoned candy factory on Glentevej in the Northwest quarter. There is an irony in the fact that if it was still in use, I would find it less welcoming, but as it is, I clearly see my invitation written all over it. Even if I need to jump a fence to get there. The feeling of this place is a little bit like leaving a couple of radios on, set on different stations and just letting the noises blend. An angry, beautiful and inspiring mess, with all that raw energy still radiating from it.

Stained wood, I have a strong feeling we are in for a lot of that next.

And colors, loud and happy. Vitamins for the eyes.

Painted glass, goosebump good.

A dirty-green picket fence waiting to happen. Totally dying to find out what that is about, of course.

17 February 2012

The weather pretty much dictates the quality of our lives in this part of the world. All we can do is adapt, and try to make the best of what is handed to us. Playing on the icy lakes was fun for all of five minutes, but after days of rain, the city has revoked the access. Fortunately you still have part two of that beautiful day coming, from the winter wonderland that was Copenhagen before I was tackled by the evil flu (and still am, dammit).

Dog shoes! The salty conditions are murder on dog paws, this is brilliant. Not necessarily pretty, but that should not be the highest priority when it comes to your well-being. Or your dogs.

How sweet is this, turning the snowman towards the road, to greet passers-by? Cool in every sense of the word. Between all this and the 1930s stairway show, I really didn't expect any more. Then I spotted this:

Eye candy. I have been wondering what happened to all the Copenhagen street art, I hardly see any these days. Maybe displaying in the streets got too mainstream for the wild ones? Some of those who once embellished our streets have moved on to the galleries, the Basco5 show Unlovable opens at Helvetikat today, and Armsrock is showing in Århus. I have a good tip on a piece of Bert I need to investigate, but that is it, so this piece of eye candy was just what I needed.

14 February 2012

Sometimes I wonder if I will eventually run out of things to photograph in Copenhagen. I typically get these thoughts during the winter months, where everything is white on white. When the camera refuse to work (even though I now carry it near my body, like a baby kangaroo), and when it is too wet or dark to bring out. But it is almost like Copenhagen knows when I need a boost, and when I hit an all time low (like today), it always finds a way to bring me comfort and pick me up.

This building, Hans Nansens Gaard in Gyldenløvesgade, is from the 1930s, and until recently it was the headquarters of the Danish tax office, earning the nickname the Tax Mansion. A lot of it has undergone reconstruction, but they thankfully left the original spiralled staircase and hallway untouched.

I got seriously stair struck!

It felt wrong to enter the modernized offices (where serious matters are handled), except for sneaking a quick shot of the crazy dotty acoustic ceiling:

12 February 2012

.

Greetings

We love Copenhagen so expect us to be biased. We hug trees, and we love street art, flea markets, old cars and new ideas. We go everywhere by bike, and nowhere without a camera. We worship freedom of speech and believe in democracy, but we have long since lost faith in our politicians. Me and my big mouth.